Georgios Samaras Bio Send To Friend  

The Greece international had moved to England in January 2006 when making a £6m switch from Heerenveen.

He had impressed in the Dutch Eredivisie after moving to Holland when he was only 16. He broke into the Heerenveen team for the 2003-04 season, scoring four goals from 10 starts in his debut campaign.

Despite being used sparingly in 2004-05 he managed to bag 11 League goals - starting only six matches with 25 substitute appearances.

And before joining Manchester City in 2005-06 he netted six goals in 13 starts.

City had previously offered only £3m for the highly-rated Greek forward. And the player then went on strike rather than return to training after the Dutch FA ruled Heerenveen's original £9m asking price was not too high.

He made his debut for the club as a 65th minute replacement for Andy Cole in a 3-0 home win over Newcastle United.

But Samaras scored just eight league goals before he was loaned to Celtic in January 2008, making his debut in a 5-1 Scottish Cup win at Kilmarnock. Samaras netted the final goal on his debut. The move was made permanent in the summer for around £1.5m.

Samaras has struggled to win over his critics at Celtic and been in and out of the side.